-Whew! Its been a while. Sorry about that! But here's an extra long update to make up for it. Thanks again for all the reviews! They make my heart sing.

A few days later Jane had finally caught a break in the case of the murdered teenager. They had uncovered a drug smuggling ring that operated by using college students as drug mules. The students would go on trips abroad and return carrying drugs for the group. The students would be paid for their service and the ring would have the drugs they wanted to sell, without having to leave the country to get them. The teenaged boy had been interested in investigative journalism and had accidentally discovered what the crime ring was doing. When the teen attempted to go undercover with a couple of college friends pretending to be interested in making some money, it was discovered that the boy had a video camera with him.

The second in command of the ring had been there and ordered the boy killed for the fear that he would go to the police with what he found out.

"Poor kid." Jane said, staring up at the picture of Benjamin. "He thought he had found a great story and ended up getting himself killed over it."

"Well regardless of what he intended, his death will make for some pretty sensational journalism." Korsak agreed, sadly.

"Now we've just got to figure out where this Campbell guy is so we can arrest him. We've got one of the underlings saying that he's the one that shot Benjamin. We just need to find him." Jane said, flipping through the stack of papers on her desk.

"Last known address is vacant, so he's not there." Frost supplied, looking up from his computer. "You know I think that guy we interviewed, the one that gave him up might have said something about a bar that the guys hang out at." He rifled through a file on his desk and pulled out a packet of papers. "Yeah, here it is. The Rusty Nail."

"The Rusty Nail?" Jane asked incredulously. "That's got to be fake."

Frost punched a few keys on his computer. "Nope, its real. Although its also really rundown. C'mon I've got an address. Lets check it out."

Jane checked her watch and saw that it was 5:30. "Well hopefully Campbell starts drinking early." She grabbed her jacket and headed for the doors.

After sitting in rush hour traffic for almost an hour Jane finally pulled up in front of what appeared to be an abandoned building. "Are you sure this is the right address?"

Frost checked his phone. "Yeah, this is what it said. Maybe its one of those places you have to know about to get in, no advertising."

"Yeah I guess." Jane muttered. "I'm sure they'll take really kindly to us showing up then."

"You want me to call for backup?" Frost asked.

"Nah, we'll just see whats going on, ask a few questions. There's no way we'll actually find Campbell here. Hopefully we can just get a better idea of where he might hang out." Jane replied, checking her gun on her hip before turning the car off.

Jane got out and made her way across the sludgy, half frozen ground. There were a few trucks parked directly in front of the bar but there was hardly any sign that the building in fact contained a bar. Half of the windows on the building were shuttered and there was only one outside light, directly above the doorway.

Jane pushed open the glass door and a bell attached to it, jangled slightly. The inside of the bar was almost as dark and rundown as the outside. There was a long bar with stools, a few tables and a couple of old TVs but not much else. There were five guys seated together at the bar and the bartender had his back to the detectives. There were another couple of men seated around one of the tables in the center of the room, playing cards.

Jane and Frost walked up to the bar as the bartender turned around.

"What are you two doing here?" The man asked.

"Well, I'm Detective Rizzoli and this is Detective Frost, we've got a couple of questions for you." Jane said, pulling her jacket aside to flash her badge.

The bartender grunted his displeasure and refilled one of the men's mugs. "I ain't got nothing to tell you."

"We're looking for information on a Roy Campbell." Frost replied, showing the man a photo of their killer.

"Never heard of a Roy Campbell." The bartender said, louder than necessary. Jane took the opportunity while Frost was speaking to look around the room at the other men. The men at the bar were still engrossed in their conversation and three of the men at the table were concentrating on their card game but Jane noticed one of the men from the table had gotten up and was headed through a side door.

Jane followed him, wondering if there was another room to the bar. As she pushed open the door she heard raised voices and the sound of things being knocked over. Her hand immediately went to her gun as she eased the door open slowly. The room was darker than the main room had been and Jane had just barely made out the shape of tables and chairs when she heard a voice shout "Cop!".

She immediately drew her gun and shouted, "Boston Police. Don't move!" There were probably a dozen men in the room, some of them attempting to make it out the back exit. None of them listened to Jane's order and continued running around, pushing each other out of the way. Jane spotted a man that she was almost certain was Roy Campbell and she cursed the fact that she hadn't told Frost where she was going. She could only hope he had heard the commotion and was behind her. The man was behind a counter at the other end of the room and moving towards a door. Jane moved toward him, dodging the other men who were moving around senselessly in her path.

"Campbell!" She yelled and he turned around at the sound of his name. He looked startled that he was the one being singled out and he glanced around frantically before grabbing a giant box full of mugs off the counter and hurling them in her direction. She dodged the box but he had pulled a gun from behind the counter now and was aiming it at the detective, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

Jane knew she could shoot him, he was only ten feet away and she was a good shot. She exhaled quickly and prepared to squeeze the trigger but in the split second before could, she suddenly felt the world shift. One of the larger men had barreled into her side, sending her sprawling across the floor. She managed to keep a hold of her gun and she quickly set up to take aim at Campbell again but just when she locked her sight on him, she heard the pop of another gun. Her head swung in the direction of the noise and she saw the bartender standing in the doorway. She suddenly became aware of a stabbing pain in her thigh. "Shit." She muttered wondering if that shot had been aimed at her. In the next second there were more shots, so Jane didn't have time to waste wondering what was going on.

She trained her gun on Campbell again and was about to pull the trigger when she noticed that red was already seeping across his chest. His face was frozen in a sort of half grin as he glanced down at his shirt and then sank to the ground. Jane caught sight of Frost as she made her way over to Campbell. The room seemed to have cleared quickly around her as the gunshots went off. Jane heard Frost calling for backup as she checked Campbell for a pulse. He didn't have one, which Jane wasn't surprised by.

She turned to find Frost putting handcuffs on the bartender. "What the hell just happened?" Jane asked as she made her way over to the pair. Frost looked at the detective and trained his gaze on her leg.

"Jane, did you get shot?"

Jane looked down to find a dark red stain spreading on the leg of her gray pants. "Oh shit." Jane said as the size of the spot seemed to grow while Jane watched. She put her hand down to feel the damage but as she did she felt the world tilt around her once again before everything went black.

—

Jane heard the beeping of her alarm clock but she couldn't seem to find it to turn it off. She groped along her bedside table for a few seconds before she felt a hand on hers.

"Jane?"

Jane struggled to open her eyes, and when she did she found Maura sitting next to her bed. The beeping wasn't her alarm, but one of the machines beside her hospital bed.

"Jane?" Maura asked again. "It's okay. You're in the hospital. You were shot."

Jane blinked slowly a few times, her eyes were gritty as if she'd been asleep for a long time.

"Maura." Jane managed, her throat dry and scratchy. Maura smiled and pulled Jane's fingers to her lips, but Jane could see tears in the blonde's eyes. "I'm okay Maur. Aren't I?"

"You were shot in the thigh. The bullet narrowly missed the femoral artery, and you lost a lot of blood." Maura said, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. "They took you into emergency surgery and got the bullet out but they had to give you a lot of blood." Maura explained, her voice breaking.

Jane closed her eyes for a moment as if if were possible to feel how much blood her body had lost. She opened them and offered Maura a small smile. "What no precise scientific units on how much blood I lost?" She rasped out.

"Jane!" Maura said, swatting Jane's hand lightly, but she smiled weakly. "You scared me." She said, growing serious again. "I thought… what if I had lost you?" At this Maura started crying again in earnest, covering her face with her hands.

"Maur, its okay." Jane said attempting to pull the other woman closer to her. Her progress was hampered by the IV in one of her arms and the blood pressure cuff around the other. "Come here." She said, gesturing for Maura to move closer to the bed. Maura scooted her chair closer and leaned into Jane's arms. Jane hugged the blonde closer to her, smoothing the golden curls with one hand.

"I'm sorry." She whispered and for some reason this only made Maura cry harder. "Maura?" Jane pulled back in order to look into Maura's face.

"I know you are. You're always sorry when it happens. But the fact of the matter is it keeps happening. You're always in danger." Maura said through her tears. "It's just, I sew you lying there in the ER, lifeless. You were so pale. I thought…" She shook her head, unable to finish the sentence.

Jane pulled the blonde into another embrace. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly. "I really am. It was stupid. We shouldn't have gone in without backup."

Jane held Maura close to her until the other woman quieted. Maura sat back in the chair, smoothing her hair distractedly. "I can't even say 'don't do it again' Jane. Because I know you will." Maura added, wiping her nose with a kleenex.

Jane didn't have an answer for that because she knew it was true as well. Her job was to get the bad guys, whatever that meant.

"Jane…" Maura started, a serious look on her face. Jane's heart sank, she knew what Maura would say.

"It's okay, Maura. I understand that this is too hard. And its not fair to you. I know we can't keep doing this." Jane said, taking a deep breath and pushing it out.

Maura's face rippled in confusion at Jane's words. "Can't keep doing what?" Maura asked, her brow creased in worry.

"Date, see each other." Jane supplied, looking down at her blanket. She didn't want to have to look at Maura's face. Jane picked at a loose thread on her blanket, until she felt a hand on her chin.

"Jane…" Maura said, gently pulling Jane's gaze up to meet hers. "I was going to ask if you want to move in with me."

Jane was so shocked her mouth practically fell open. Whatever she had been expecting Maura to say that had not been it. "But you just said you couldn't do this. That you couldn't watch me get hurt." Jane sputtered.

"Of course I don't like it!" Maura responded with a slight smile. "But I will do it because I love you. And I just… I want us to live together. I want to be able to keep a good eye on you, mostly." She finished with a grin.

Jane stared intently into Maura's face, the woman who had just invited her to move in with her, the one who had said 'I love you'. She had never imagined that morning when she woke up that she would get shot but even more than that she had never believed that the night could end so perfectly.

"Okay." Jane replied, a slow grin stretching across her face. She leaned over to kiss the blonde sweetly on the lips. "You said 'I love you'." Jane commented with a grin as she pulled away from the other woman. Maura flushed slightly, "It's true."

"I love you too." Jane replied before capturing Maura's mouth again.

-The ending of this chapter was almost too sweet even for me.. and I wrote it! Yay? Nay?